Nighttime Chicken Coop Security That Works

Transcript

Why Chickens Are Vulnerable At Night

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for tuning in. And today I would like to talk about protecting your flock and more specifically protecting them at nighttime. Nighttime chickens are the most vulnerable. Chickens kind of go into a trance at night. They have very, very poor eyesight in the dark. And through the last several thousand years, uh nature has put it to where they're just kind of lethargic. This is why chickens want to roost at nighttime. They they have an instinct to get up as high as they can, and they're doing this to get away from predators. And when they get into your roost at night inside your chicken pen, that's what their instincts are telling them to do. You've ever noticed, if you ever go out there at nighttime, you can shine flashlights in there, you can pick up chickens, you can do all kinds of things with them, and they're really not going to give you much of an issue doing it. They become very lethargic. This also makes them very vulnerable to those animals out there who like

The Predators That Hunt Coops

SPEAKER_00 1:35

to eat chicken. And there are several, raccoons and possums. And just, you know, depending on the area or the country that you live in, you have minks. And, you know, I really can't say anything about bears. We don't have that kind of an issue down here in Louisiana, but if you have bear issues, I don't know what to tell you. You're going to have to try to build a fortress uh around those birds to take care of them.

Why Chicken Wire Fails

SPEAKER_00 1:56

But the first thing I would like to say about it is chicken wire is great for keeping chickens in. Chicken wire is not so great when it comes to keeping other predators out. A raccoon, for one, can reach its hand through chicken wire and grab a bird. Number two, if it tries long enough, it can break the chicken wire. That very thin wire, when you exercise it back and forth long enough, it's going to break. And if a coon ever gets in there, they're going to start killing birds. And I don't know what it is about them. Uh they're not necessarily going to eat all that they kill, but they will kill everything that they can get their hands on. And if your animals are not uh, you know, awake and alert, and chickens are not at night, that they're going to be very vulnerable and it's going to be a lot of trouble. Hopefully, if it does happen, maybe you hear a little bit of commotion in there. But chicken wire is really not the way to go.

Hardware Cloth And Dig Proofing

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Hardware cloth is much more durable, and also putting hardware cloth, a foot or two of it, around the bottom of your coop and your run. That way, if an animal, whether it's a dog, a possum, uh raccoon, whatever, if it starts trying to scratch and dig under the coop, it can't because the chicken wire is going to block it. The windows that you have, you know, I've got sliding windows that go back and forth in my coop. Whenever they're open, there's hardware cloth over them. And this this hardware cloth is is again my my best prevention to get for getting things in there, to keep from getting things in there. That's kind of really about all you can do. You just want a good, safe, secure structure.

Latches Predators Cannot Open

SPEAKER_00 3:38

You want the door and the latch to be a type of latch that an animal just can't slap around with its paw and it eventually come open. Uh they make latches that you can put carabiners in or pins in or something like that, and you have to remove those before the latch will open. They make other latches that require an opposable thumb to work them and to get them open, but you don't want a latch that's just that old-fashioned little latch that your grandmother had on her screen door because an animal can eventually get in there. And the one time that they do, it works great for a year, it works great for many months, but the one time that they do get in there and decimate your flock, it's going to be bad, and you're not going to like it. You're going to feel rotten. I mean, it's happened to everybody at some point in time is it that you have predator issues.

Cameras And A Nightly Security Checklist

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I I have cameras outside of my my pen that that that look towards the pen, and on more than one occasion I have seen a raccoon pacing back and forth wanting to get in there and get a free meal. Like like I said earlier, everybody likes to taste the chicken, and raccoons and animals out there are no exception. Uh dogs that can come around at nighttime, you know, they can smell these birds and know that they're in there. You want to have a good door to to block them, you want to have a good latch, you want to have hardware cloth around there, you want a good top on it, you don't want something that they can jump on and eventually work their way inside your chicken coop. So that's kind of what my thoughts are. I was just thinking about that the other day and said, you know, it's been a while since I've talked about this. Night protection is just as important as day protection. And in some cases, because of the way the chickens react, even more important. So look at your coop, look over it, and if there's any way that you think that an animal that can work for several hours at a time, even and get in there, think of a way to stop this from happening. You'll be glad that you did.

Write In And Keep Birds Safe

SPEAKER_00 5:37

So, anyway, uh, as always, if you want to chat, you think you might want to get on the show, or if you have a comment, please let me know. Just chickens everyday at yahoo.com is the email address. And that's C H I C K E N S Everyday at Yahoo.com. Let me hear from you. Keep those birds safe. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

That's all we have time for today. I really hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast. Be sure to watch our videos. So, on behalf of my couple, Gary, and me, Sylvie. Thanks for listening.